Bots and Busto

Have to admit that the ginormous thread on 2+2 about bots playing $200 NL at FullTilt is pretty interesting reading. Color me paranoid, but I've pretty much always assumed that bots play on all sites, so that aspect of it doesn't surprise me all that much. Talk all you want about security of sites and vigilant efforts to identify and block bots, blah blah blah, but the simple truth is that the security efforts of every major online poker site are pretty woeful in regards to such things, so I just assume it happens constantly, like collusion and people running multiple accounts in tournaments and SnGs.

What's somewhat lost in the hubbub is the fact that the accounts were playing profitably, over a decent sample size of hands. Add in rakeback for the accounts and they're accumulating a nice little chunk of change for the programmer, assuming they are indeed bots, yada yada yada. That's the interesting (and I think inevitable) part of the story for me, as far as someone being smart enough to program a winning bot. Well, and the fact that someone could be intelligent enough to create the bot but such a dumbass as far as covering his or her tracks.

Managed to go busto with my wee little Full Tilt funds, so no poker for me of late. While going busto a year or two ago might have been noteworthy, not so much these days, as I've loaded a total of $400 or so to play on these last few months, working through it in a variety of donkified ways, but mainly blowing it on Bracelet Races (and mainly on the Friday night rebuy Bracelet Races).

I'd like to say it upsets me and bugs me but, meh, not so much. I have been enoying playing of late, so I guess it sucks in that sense, but I've also largely managed to wean myself away from the poker it seems, as far as feeling any sort of sense of urgency to play. Much of that I think is actually due to finding other pastures to make money in, as far as ditching the casino and poker affiliate game back when the UIGEA went into effect.

While the money is potentially good (both from playing and on the affiliate side), you're always wrestling with a large element of randomness, and a lack of control (internally and externally). If I pick and sort through all the various emotions in shifting away from poker on both a personal and business sense, probably the largest single emotion to pluck out is relief. Not so much in the sense that I'm relieved to not be in the game, as I most definitely miss it, but relief in the sense that it's finally become a true hobby, and something I'll likely do every now and then, enjoy the hell out of it, but never look to as anything other than a fun diversion.

Which is kind of sad but also kind of nice. Blasphemous for these confines, indeed, but there ya go.

All that babbling aside, I'm definitely looking forward to playing in Vegas in June. I keep waffling but I'm pretty much completely ruling out playing in a WSOP event, regardless of how things go on the house selling front. I've been hitting the grindstone pretty damn hard of late, and likely will continue through the first half of June, and am really looking forward to taking a real vacation, with doing pretty much nothing other than drinking, eating, and gambling. While playing one of the $1,500 NL events would definitely fall into the gambling category, it'd be of the slightly more stressful variety, and I'm thinking I'm going to do all I can to reduce stress on this trip.